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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22897786">presumed dead.</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/seekrest/pseuds/seekrest'>seekrest</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>febuwhump 2020. [25]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>(Like always), Angst with a Happy Ending, BAMF Peter Parker, Hurt Peter Parker, Hurt/Comfort, I put the boys through it in this one, Presumed Dead, Protective Peter Parker, Tony Stark Needs a Hug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 12:09:19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,858</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22897786</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/seekrest/pseuds/seekrest</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony comes to with a start, his whole body aching and his ears ringing as he groans.</p><p>He feels like he’s been slammed into the wall repeatedly, his head pounding and his heart hammering a million miles a minute as he tries to get his bearings - his mind trying to put the pieces back together of how he’d gotten into this position.</p><p>It hits him like lightning bolt, Tony’s eyes snapping open as his heart races - immediately going to sit up as he gasps.</p><p> </p><p>  <i>Peter.</i></p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Peter Parker &amp; Tony Stark</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>febuwhump 2020. [25]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1619581</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>320</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>presumed dead.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/blondsak/gifts">blondsak</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Tony comes to with a start, his whole body aching and his ears ringing as he groans.</p><p>He feels like he’s been slammed into the wall repeatedly, his head pounding and his heart hammering a million miles a minute as he tries to get his bearings - his mind trying to put the pieces back together of how he’d gotten into this position.</p><p>It hits him like lightning bolt, Tony’s eyes snapping open as his heart races - immediately going to sit up as he gasps.</p><p><em> Peter </em>.</p><p>They had been together - <em> on a mission? through the city? </em> - images flooding back to the front of his mind as he remembered joking with the kid only moments - <em> minutes? Hours? Days? </em>- ago, watching in horror as Peter had been shot out of the sky, only seconds before Tony himself was knocked out by something that he could only describe as a blaster of some sort.</p><p>Tony’s back aches as his lungs struggle oxygen, freely moving and yet still feeling as if he’s tied down - his hands shaking as he looks around the empty construction site that they’d fallen into - his stomach dropping when he sees him.</p><p>Peter was not even three feet ahead of him, wheezing and clearly in pain - Tony’s eyes first focusing on the fact that he doesn’t have his mask on only for his eyes to travel down to the cause of why Peter was struggling to breathe, his heart constricting when he sees it.</p><p>A rusted, broken off piece of rebar is sticking straight up and out of Peter’s midsection - the place around the wound stained a dark red that Tony’s brain knows is blood but that his mind can’t quite process. </p><p>Tony’s eyes barely brush over the other piece of rebar sticking up from right thigh, wondering how the hell Parker luck could manifest so horribly that Peter’s senses hadn’t given him enough warning to avoid it - wondering what he’d been shot with that had disoriented Peter so much that he’d fallen so brutally.</p><p>But Tony pushes that way, immediately moving towards Peter - even as his head continues to pound and his vision begins to darken, feeling like every crawl towards Peter was like moving through mud, like his hands couldn’t move as much as he tried to. </p><p>“Kid? Hey, hey, hey, you’re okay. You’re okay.” Tony says as he makes his way to Peter, watching with horror as Peter starts to choke, glancing to Tony with a terrified expression on his face.</p><p>“T’ny—“</p><p>“Shh, don’t talk, Pete. It’s okay, I’m right here. I’m right here okay?” Tony quickly shushes as his heart leaps into his throat, hearing the wet rattle of Peter’s wheezes start to increase.</p><p>“S’rry.” Peter rasps, a hand moving aimlessly towards him as Tony grabs it, feeling the tears in his eyes as he shakes his head.</p><p>“Nothing to be sorry for, kid. You’re okay. It’s okay.”</p><p>Tony knows it’s a lie when he says it, Peter starting to choke more as he struggles to breathe - the ringing in Tony’s ears growing louder and louder as his headache gets worse.</p><p>Peter’s grip tightens in his hands for a moment before Tony hears the worst sound he’s ever heard - an awful choked gasp that suddenly stops, wondering if the silence is somehow worse as Tony starts to panic. </p><p>“No, no, no, no. Come on, Pete. Come on, kid. Stay with me alright? Stay with me.”</p><p>But it’s too late, Tony knowing Peter’s already gone as his own chest started to heave - the ringing in his ears growing louder and louder as his vision blurs.</p><p>It was supposed to be a simple mission - in and out, in time for dinner, sending him off back to his aunt in one piece. </p><p>
  <em> Right? </em>
</p><p>But all Tony can focus on is Peter’s cold gloved hand in his, the glassy and unfocused stare in his eyes that shatters something deep inside him as Tony feels the weight of his grief overwhelming him - putting his hand to Peter’s still chest as the sob pours out of him.</p><p>This was his fault, it was always his fault - always destined to watch the people he loved die in front of him - a cruel but undeniable fate for anyone who ever came into his life.</p><p>The ringing in his ears becomes unbearable, distantly aware of the sound of an explosive going off - staring into Peter’s eyes as he waits for the fire and the flames to overtake him, too wracked with grief to even consider leaving.</p><p>When the fire finally hits, it feels cold - like ice in his veins as the darkness overwhelms him, hoping the silence will give him peace for the grief that he feels in his heart.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>“Mr. Stark! Mr. Stark, I’m right here.” Peter yells, furiously banging his hands against the vibranium cuffs - watching as the men who’d captured them administered yet another dose of the hallucinogen to Tony.</p><p>The man to his side smiled at him, tilting his head.</p><p>“You continue to scream for him, boy? When you know he can’t hear you?”</p><p>“Stop— just stop doing this.” Peter pleads, the fury and injustice of what they were doing to his mentor burning inside of him - watching as the electrodes connected to Tony’s brain lit up again, showing on the screen the same image of Tony waking up in a construction site rather than the holding room they were in - glancing over to see a simulated Peter struggling to breathe. </p><p>Peter gritted his teeth, his muscles aching as he struggled - hating that he’d been too slow to dodge the blast that had shot him out of the sky, hating even more that Tony had flown in after him - Peter’s last memory before he’d hit the ground being Tony’s panicked yell.</p><p>Their captors had made it into a game now - sick and twisted as some kind of way of getting information that Peter didn’t have. </p><p>Peter wasn’t sure what was worse - to know that Tony was experiencing <em> him </em> dying over and over again - or that Peter had been subjected to watching Tony relive his worst nightmare - powerless in his own way to stop it for hours as the man taunted him. </p><p>“We will stop when you tell us where you have kept the gauntlet.”</p><p>“We don’t have the gauntlet!” Peter yells, furious as he struggles in vain to wrench himself out of the cuffs that bound him - only for the man to smile at him again.</p><p>“So long as you continue to remain obstinate, your Mr. Stark here will suffer.”</p><p>The man grins, Peter clenching his hands into fists, staring down the man before looking back to Tony - watching as his mentor’s face contorted in pain as the simulated him died again. </p><p>Peter could see Tony cry out, his hands and his legs strapped down to the table he was on - his heart clenching after seeing Tony physically try to reach out as the images played on the screen above him, watching as Tony tried to hold simulated Peter before another dose of the hallucinogen was administered. </p><p><em> I’m right here, Mr. Stark. I’m right here, </em>Peter thinks - grinding his teeth.</p><p>He didn’t know where the gauntlet was anymore, or if it even still existed. Didn’t know who the hell had captured them. </p><p>But Peter just stared the man down, wrestling with the cuffs once more - convinced that he had to break free.</p><p>He couldn’t watch Mr. Stark watch <em> him </em> die again. </p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>Tony’s body started to shake, the sob building as he pushed away some of the hair on Peter’s forehead away, his vision blurring and his head throbbing in pain.</p><p>This wasn’t how it was supposed to be, even if a part of Tony wondered if this was inevitable - cursed to always be a failure to the people who mattered most in his life. </p><p>Before Tony can move his hands to close Peter’s eyes, his heart aching at the realization that they’d never see him again - Peter disappears, Tony’s stomach dropping as the hand that had been at Peter’s forehead suddenly hits cold pavement.</p><p>“What--” Tony goes to ask only for the world around him began to shift, his head throbbing more and more as he blinked. </p><p>“Mr. Stark.” Tony’s head snapped to the sound of a voice that sounded so much like Peter, distant - even if Tony immediately shook it away.</p><p><em> Keep it together, </em>he thought to himself - knowing that his mind was cruel, that it would try to to convince him of--</p><p>“Mr. Stark!” Peter’s voice becomes clearer now, louder - as if he was right in Tony’s face even if Tony can’t make sense of it, the construction site crumbling all around him as the ringing in his ears grows louder - a flash of white light until suddenly---</p><p>“Mr. Stark? Mr. Stark, I’m right here. I’m right here, can you please-- are you okay?”</p><p>Tony blinked, a splitting headache as he groaned - lolling his head to the side.</p><p>“Kid?” Tony asks hopefully, feeling a hand on his shoulder - turning to look only for the breath he hadn’t even realized he was holding to be released.</p><p>Peter looks like he’d just seen the inside of a boxing ring, bruises all over his face and neck, the arm not extended towards Tony’s shoulder looking dislocated.</p><p>In any other instance, Tony would immediately be concerned - searching for how and why he’d been hurt so brutally.</p><p>But all Tony can focus on is the flush of Peter’s cheeks, the way his eyes search his face, the unmistakable reality that he was <em> alive </em>.</p><p>“Kid, you’re-- you’re not--”</p><p>“It wasn’t real, Mr. Stark. I’m here. I’m--” Peter glances back behind his shoulder, Tony just staring at Peter when he turns back to him. “We gotta go okay? I don’t know how long till they send backup.”</p><p>“Pete, I’m-- I’m so glad--”</p><p>“I know.” Peter says, the look on his face somehow convincing Tony that he did - even if there was no way for Peter to have any idea the hell that Tony had just experienced. </p><p>But there’s an urgency to Peter’s voice, the understanding that whatever Peter had done to give them some time to escape wouldn’t last long - his eyes glancing around the dilapidated room he was in, the straps that had held him down ripped to shreds and a man on the floor - Tony barely catching the rise and fall of his chest. </p><p>Tony has a thousand questions but can only focus on the one, Peter helping him sit up as he asks, “Are you okay?”</p><p>Peter’s laugh is watery, tight in his chest as his grip on Tony’s shoulder tightens. “Yeah, yeah, I’m okay. You?”</p><p>Tony stares into Peter’s eyes, putting a hand on his shoulder - wanting to pull him in for a hug but thinking better of it because of his shoulder, a peace washing over him that even if they weren’t out of danger just yet, that they would be.</p><p>Peter was hurt and so was Tony, the ringing in his ears still reverberating around his skull.</p><p>But Peter was <em> alive </em>. That’s all Tony needed to know.</p><p>“Yeah kid,” Tony says, Peter giving a half-smile in return. “I’m okay.” </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>We are in the final stretch of febuwhump and I need a nap. ALMOST THERE.</p><p>Kudos and comments are always appreciated.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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